Liz and Aodan Coburn, photographed at the Lawrence Hotel by Enda Casey.

The INSPIRE interview: Athboy's own little bit of Hollywood

A strange set of coincidences, all linked to one of the greatest movies in cinema history, has led to a Meath couple opening a hotel and restaurant in Athboy named after 'Lawrence of Arabia'.
Elizabeth and Aodán Cogan have combined Aodán's work in the film business with Elizabeth's background in the hospitality and pub industry to open the boutique establishment adjoining Coburn's Bar on the main street.
Many will be familiar with the hostelry as the former Inn Moderation, and to previous generations, The Central Bar, ran over the years by Woods, Mannings, and Farrells.
Now, the Coburns have tied in the local connections of TE Lawrence, the subject of the epic Oscar-winning movie starring Peter O'Toole and Omar Sharif, with their own associations with the movie business.
The Coburns lived in Los Angeles for decades, where Aodán is the executive vice president of Worldwide Operations with Sony Pictures Home Entertainment, a role that had brought them in contact with many movie stars, including the stars of David Lean's 1962 masterpiece.
Elizabeth, from Crossakiel, and Aodán, from Williamstown, Mullaghea near Kells, first met as teenagers in her parents' pub, the Welcome Wagon in Crossakiel. Lily and the late Noel O'Driscoll had bought the pub in the 1970s on their return from London, and were one of the first businesses to build a major function room to a public house, attracting acts like Big Tom, to Christy Moore and Stockton's Wing, and the Dubliners who spend a lot of time in nearby Ardglasson village.
After university, Liz and Aodán went to work in London, where she worked in Rank Strand Lighting, a theatre and television lighting company providing studio and architecture lighting to the West End.
Aodan was working in insurance, but didn't like it, and when Liz saw an advertisment for a video services executive in Rank, she drew his attention to it. He got the job, becoming responsible for putting movies onto video format in the 1980s for RCA, Warner Bros, Disney/Buena Vista, MGM and Fox.
“Rank was purchased by RCA, which became Columbia Pictures, in turn bought by Sony,” explains Liz.
The first of the Lawrence of Arabia connections surfaced in London.
“We bought a house in a village called Harpender, between Luton and St Alban's. It turned out that the previous owner had been a gunner for TE Lawrence, and the lady selling the home had a lot of memorabilia.”
The gardens included a tree from Lebanon, given to the gunner, Benn, by Lawrence, and the Coburns also had a headscarf from the era.
“Sony then bought the old MGM lot in Culver City, Los Angeles, where the Wizard of Oz was filmed, and Mickey Rooney and Elizabeth Taylor made National Velvet.”
The Coburns moved to the States, and Aodán worked there in distribution and production, moving up the ranks, eventually negotiating deals and being appointed to the board.
While in America, they became friendly with Peter O'Toole, who had business dealings with Columbia, and enjoyed his company at their home many times.
There were more Lawrence connections to come. With Noel O'Driscoll in ill health, the Coburns returned to Ireland for a number of years and bought a house at Killua, between Athboy and Clonmellon.
“I didn't realise there was a connection between Lawrence and Killua Castle until afterwards,” Liz explains.
A historian and archaeologist, as a British armyman TE Lawrence led Arab tribesmen in a successful campaign in the Middle East and was lauded as a hero in World War One.
Lawrence was born in Tremadoc in Wales in 1888. His father was Sir Thomas Chapman, eldest son of the Chapman family of Killua Castle, who was married with four daughters when, in 1879, Sarah Junner came to work at South Hill as governess. Some time thereafter, Thomas and Sarah began an affair. By 1885, they were living a secret life as the 'Chapmans' in Dublin when their first son was born. When news of their affair became known, the 'Lawrences', as they then referred to themselves, fled to Wales and shortly afterwards Thomas Edward was born. Settling in Oxford in 1896, Thomas and Sarah would eventually have five sons together. Lawrence died in a motorbike crash in Morton, Devon, in 1935.
“We lived on Morton Lane in London for a while – another connection,” laughs Liz.
With two college-going children, the Coburns were looking at what to do next in life, when the opportunity came up to buy the hotel and bar business in Athboy. Liz, who had worked as a teacher, decided that the time in life had come when she'd like to work for herself, rather than others, and took on the role of project managing the refurbishment of the premises, which dates back to 1703.
Maintaining the old world bar at the front, the restaurant and hotel to the rear was given a 1920s art deco style look of the classic movie era. Architect Lloyd Fitzsimons of Kells and bespoke designers Des and John Fitzgerald, also of Kells, worked on the project. The original bar was painstakingly taken apart piece by piece and restored before being rebuilt.
The buildings were once owned by Dr Steeven's Hospital in Dublin, and the lease had to be bought out by a previous owner. Regular visitors in the past included Eamon de Valera, who plotted some of his Civil War movements there.
The building had old cellars, and an area for bottling beer from a brewery across the street. Old doors rescued from a restoration on St James' RC Church a century ago are a feature in the snug.
The restaurant in contrast is a large, bright, circular area with lots of glass and an art deco bar styled on a piece in the Ritz, London, with wall designs influenced by the Waldorf Astoria in New York.
“A collector friend sourced the signed photos of Peter O'Toole and Omar Sharif,” says Liz of the huge movie stills looking down from the walls.
In the hotel, each room is given an individual touch, with some wallpapers brought home from America, others sourced in Shanley Interiors in Navan. There is a spa room with a massage bench and jacuzzi bath, and a separate function room for small events which can accommodate 50 to 70 people.
And the hotel rooms are not numbered – each one is named after a movie star – starting with the Lawrence actors, O'Toole, Sharif, Alec Guinness and Anthony Quinn, then there's the Garland, O'Hara, Garbo, Davis, Hepburn, Cagney, and Kelly rooms.
It's Athboy's own little bit of Hollywood!

 

(First appeared in print edition, Meath Chronicle Inspire magazine, April 2017)